Revisiting Children of the Stones

Read Time: 6 mins

Title: Children of the Stones (1977)
Director: Peter Graham Scott
Creators: Jeremy Burnham, Trevor Ray
Starring: Iain Cuthbertson, Veronica Strong, Gareth Thomas, Freddie Jones
Music: Sidney Sagar
Genre: Supernatural, Horror, Thriller

After a 17-year stint living in Berlin – a place I’ve unfortunately never warmed to – I suddenly find myself in a small town in northern Portugal. A new reality: a lattice of Atlantic rock art, half-finished dream houses, and the ever-present threat of forest fires. A lifetime of small towns and even smaller villages around Wales and the West Country means I instantly feel at home here. Atlantic magic pervades – druidic, Celtic, bardic culture, whatever you want to call it. It’s here. I can’t describe it, but I feel it – it feels right.

It’s with this in mind that I’ve decided to revisit HTV’s 1977 children’s drama, Children of the Stones.
NB: There will be spoilers!

Now, I say “children’s drama” with some reticence, as it’s a wonder to me that Children of the Stones was ever slated as such – a feeling supposedly shared by its director. Though very much of its time – camp and over-theatrical – Children of the Stones boasts a complex and verbose storyline, and a soundtrack of discordant wails by Sidney Sager featuring the haunting voices of the Ambrosian Singers that is, at times, truly frightening. In truth, this is supernatural horror and utterly hauntological – but that’s 70s and 80s British kids’ telly in a nutshell.

Filmed at Avebury stone circle, the story follows Aberystwyth’s own Gareth Thomas as scientist Adam Brake, who, along with his gifted teenage son Matt, arrives in the imagined village of Milbury on a three-month academic project to examine the stone circle and its apparent magnetic qualities. There, they inadvertently uncover the strange truth about a village trapped in a time loop and its cultish leader, Hendrick – an ex-astrophysicist brilliantly played by Iain Cuthbertson.

Adam experiences visions

Matt discovers an old painting in a charity shop, seemingly depicting an ancient ritual in the village, featuring a serpent and a beam of light emanating from a circle of dancers. The painting bears the inscription “I deny the existence of that which exists” in dog Latin. Upon showing it to Mrs Crabtree, the local landlady who takes them in, she faints. Fainting becomes a trope throughout the series, as the main characters, under the power of the stones, experience other realities – and, particularly Matt, engage in psychic viewing, seemingly powered by the omnipotent stones.

Milbury is a village populated almost entirely by vacuous locals who greet each other with “Happy day”, as if under the command of some cosmic diktat. The children of the village are split into two groups: the “Happy Ones”, with their synthetic politeness and prodigious abilities in mathematics and physics; and the ever-decreasing others – a motley crew of normal youths with all the affectations you’d expect from pubescent 70s teens.

A local outsider, the poacher Dai – played by Freddie Jones (Dune, The Elephant Man, Krull) – becomes a kind of protector for Matt and his friend Sandra, offering them clues and the safety of the sanctuary where he dwells. Sandra’s mother, Margaret – played by Veronica Strong – is the local museum curator who, like Adam Brake, is recently widowed, leading to a predictable courtship (it’s 70s telly, after all). Over time, this relationship becomes key to discovering “the truth” about Milbury’s stone circle and its inhabitants. Where Adam is a strict scientist, Margaret is more open-minded to spiritual or supernatural ideas, discovering that Milbury sits at the epicentre of a powerful group of ley lines – an idea Adam initially rejects, pompously stating: “You know my idea of hell? Write out 100 ‘ley lines’.”
To which Margaret chuckles, archly: “I take it you’re not a believer.”

Adam’s ignorance is soon exposed, as he and Matt experience all manner of physical and psychological episodes related to their interactions with the stones.

Dai Shows off his Talisman

When Margaret introduces the remains of the “Barber Surgeon” – an ancient villager found crushed under one of the stones – we learn of the amulet he carried. An amulet mirrored by the one Dai keeps, which he claims protects him from becoming like the other villagers. A continuation that suggests a time loop is occurring. Perhaps Dai is the Barber Surgeon – or maybe just a descendant.

In the warm, faded hue of 16mm seventies television, we amble through a series of double exposures, escape attempts, Dai’s supernatural death, and Wicker Man-like ritual scenes, as we make sense of Hendrick’s place at the epicentre of it all – where the ley lines meet. He has found a way to harness the dark energy of a black hole and brainwash the villagers, one dinner party at a time. Hendrick’s plan is finally thwarted by Adam and Matt’s combined smarts, leading to a disastrous end. The other villagers are transformed into standing stones as Adam and Matt seek refuge in the sanctuary.

The mystery continues as the pair awaken the next morning to find Dai alive again, sharpening knives – a poacher no more. He tells them to leave the sanctuary, as they are not friends. The timeline has shifted. Arriving at Mrs Crabtree’s, they are surprised to find the rest of the villagers alive and well, apparently with no recollection of the night before. As the pair prepare to leave, Margaret displays a kind of vague knowing, as if she is aware of her predicament. While the other characters seem changed, she appears to exist in both worlds – locked into a repeating tale, like a West-Countrified Ouroboros, regenerating as quickly as it devours.

As Adam and Matt finally depart the village – a previously impossible task – they pass Hendrick. But this is not Hendrick. We follow him as he attends a viewing at the centre of the ley lines. This time, he introduces himself as Sir Joshua Litton, claiming to be a professor, looking to retire to Milbury.
His final words: “I believe I shall be very happy here.”

And with that, another loop in Milbury begins…

Hendrick gets ready for the ceremony

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